Silent Fear
by LoverOfTheMusic
Summary: After Emery's mom is killed that faithful night in the Narrows, she never speaks again. And to make things worse, a meeting with a certain scarecrow still haunts her dreams seven years later. So what happens when Bane causes chaos in Gotham, and she runs back into none other than Dr. Crane himself? Will he keep her to himself or will she die screaming? Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow)/OC


(AN): Helloooo pretty people. This will be my second fanfiction on this website. So I hope you enjoy.

**Prologue**

* * *

"Thank you for coming in today." The officer sitting in front of me said. I gave him a small smile.

"No problem. I'm glad I can help you out." I replied. He gave me another smile, making the wrinkles around his eyes more prominent. He brushed his hand over his mustache before flipping a piece of paper attached to a clip board away. I wondered how he could read anything in such poor lighting.

"I suppose we should just get straight to business." He said, then looked back up at me.

"Where would you like me to start?" I asked, rubbing my arm to keep it warm in the cold concrete room. He shrugged.

"Anywhere you'd like." He told me. "Whatever you can tell us about Jonathan Crane could help us catch him." I nodded and looked down at the table in thought. A moment passed and I looked back up at him.

"I guess I should start at the beginning." I said. "It started on my twelfth birthday."

* * *

"Emery!" I heard someone shout. "Emery answer me!" I recognized my mother's voice.

I spun my head around, desperately looking for her. I could hardly see. It was too dark and whatever that was passing out of the sewer vents was clouding my vision. People were sprinting past me, running away from something, but what?

Before I found an answer someone grabbed my shoulders from behind. I looked up in alarm, preparing to jerk away from their hold, but relaxed once I saw my mother's relieved face searching me for any injury.

"Oh thank God you're okay." She said, giving me a quick hug. She stepped back after a moment, still holding me close to her, and looked around at all the terrified people before ushering me into a dark corner. We were still a ways away from our small apartment in the Narrows.

"Mom… What's going on? Why is everyone running around?" I asked. She pushed a finger against her lips and looked away again. When she was sure no one was close enough to us she turned back to look at me.

"I don't know sweetie. We're gonna be okay though. I promise." She reassured me. "Something in that white stuff is making everyone act funny. Just stay close to me, okay?" I nodded and she tried her best to give me a smile.

"We're just gonna go back home and watch a movie. But you have to be super quiet." She told me. I nodded.

"Can we watch The Phantom of the Opera again?" I asked. She glanced at me again and nodded.

"Sure. Whatever you want." She told me, still whispering. "It's your day."

For my birthday we had been going out to pick up a late dinner from the Chinese restaurant a few blocks away when that strange white vapor started leaking onto the streets. When people had started screaming I knew something was wrong.

We waited silently for what seemed like hours, but once the people started to clear out some more, we slowly ventured out into the street towards our apartment, allowing the white vapor to surround us. Without warning, my mother screamed at something, and I looked to see her staring at a fire hydrant. I looked at her in confusion.

Was there a huge spider on it or something? I wondered. Before I got a chance to look, my mother grabbed me and started running away, grasping my hand tightly. We rounded a corner and barely stopped in time before we ran into several men wearing orange jumpsuits.

My mother gave another shout and shoved me behind her. "Please! Please stay away from us! Please!" She begged them. The one closest to us, the bald one, gave her a snarled smile and held up a shiv, forcing my mother to back into the alleyway behind us, making me briefly stumble behind her.

"Emery." She whispered to me, never taking her eyes off the bald man. "Here." She handed me something. I looked down and saw her silver treble clef necklace one of her piano students gave her in my hand. I glanced back up at the men in front of us.

"I love you so much, Emery. Don't forget that." She whispered. "Run. Now." I looked up at her in alarm.

"Now Emery. Go. Don't trust anyone. Find a hiding place and stay there." She told me again. Reluctantly, I turned around and ran as fast as I could out of the back of the alleyway, glancing back just in time to see the men attack my mother. I cried out as the bald man's shiv ripped through her chest.

"Mom!" I screamed, pure terror coursing through every part of me. I almost started running back towards her, but I stopped when I saw the eyes of her murderer snap up to look at me, giving me the same snarled smile he had given my mom as he pulled the shiv out of her chest.

"EMERY RUN. " I heard my mother choke out before she went still. The men dropped her onto the concrete and started making their way towards me. My eyes widened and I turned to sprint away, defying the urge to run back to my mother.

I accidentally tripped over a piece of garbage left in the street, causing me to fall on my knees, scraping them against the pavement. I squinted my eyes in pain and forced myself back up, running away again.

I didn't need to turn around to know the men in the orange jumpsuits were gaining on me. I could hear them just fine. Desperately, I tried to run faster, rounding two more corners before I hid behind a dumpster, causing the men to run past me.

At least twenty minutes had passed before I finally stood up, walking away from the dumpster and slowly making my way down another alleyway. I didn't go back to the alley with my mom in it, for fear of the men going back for her. Instead I turned a corner to find a woman and a boy around my age huddled together. The woman saw me and waved me over.

"Are you okay?" She asked, worry in her voice. "Where are your parents?" I looked at her, tears brimming in my eyes.

I couldn't find my voice. I knew I should probably say something, but I couldn't bring myself to speak. Flashbacks of the scene in the alleyway danced in front of my eyes and I found myself terrified once again.

The woman must have noticed this, and gave me a sad look before pulling me behind her. She turned to face the boy and I.

"We're gonna be okay. I promise. Nothing is going to-" She was cut off by a deep voice behind us.

"_OF COURSE THEY ARE_." I glanced behind me to see a man wearing a burlap sack riding a horse.

"Crane?!" The woman questioned. The man raised a finger to her.

"_NO. SCARECROW_." He yelled, and the horse started galloping towards us. The woman desperately tried to get us away from him, but we only made it a few feet before the man with the booming voice spoke again.

"_THERE YOU ARE." _He said. "_THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR, BUT FEAR ITSELF." _He aimed his arm at us and the white vapor blew out of his sleeve. I blinked a few times, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, I looked back up at the man in the burlap sack who called himself Scarecrow.

The horse jumped up and the boy next to me screamed in fear while the woman pulled something out of her jacket. The man looked at me in what seemed to be confusion, even though his face was covered by the mask. I only stared back at him.

"_I CAN HEAR TH-" _He was cut off when the woman tasered him, making him scream in pain and slump forward on his horse as it ran away. The woman looked down at us, trying to mask the fear written all over her face.

"Are you okay?" She asked, looking at us. I gave a small nod and she looked at the boy, who was now whimpering in fear. I vaguely remember feeling sorry for him. However I was too numb inside to truly care.

"Let's just stay together and-" She was cut off.

"There's the runt." Someone said. I looked over and saw the same men in the orange jump suits walking towards us. My eyes widened in fear and the woman turned around to face them, and grabbed a gun from the holster of a dead man a few feet away before aiming it at the snarling bald man.

"Batman will come… He'll save us." The boy next to me whispered. The woman pulled us against her so we couldn't see anything.

"Don't peek." She directed us. I heard something drop onto the concrete, and going against my directions, turned to face the men.

A man dressed in all black with a cowl covering his face was single-handedly taking out all the men in orange jumpsuits.

Once he was finished, he turned to leave and suddenly I remembered stories my mother told me of a man in black running around Gotham, beating up criminals. He was Batman.

"I told you he'd come." The boy whispered to me. I glanced at him. The woman holding us took a step towards the Batman.

"Wait. You could die." She said. "At least tell me your name." The man turned back to look at her.

"It's not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me." He said. The woman whispered something and I thought I saw the man smile before he jumped off the ledge.


End file.
